Oh zut, I had not realised that there was no show announcement here. Until now

Radio Free D'ni show 54

On Sunday, which is probably today by now there will be a show by Radio Free D'ni with a theme of By The Book. Tracks will all have literary connections, some stronger than others. We've collected a lot of material and we may overrun a bit...

This will be a somewhat more thoughtful session, or to put it another way, there will be less of the fast and noisy stuff. Apart from bits of Iron Maiden, Rush and Deep Purple that is. Some Gordon Lightfoot, Judy Collins, Ralph McTell and Pink Floyd too. A varied collection, as usual.

Come and join us on the plaza on Sunday 30th October at 14 KI (that's 2 pm US Mountain Time, or 8 pm UK time, 9 pm European time), or in Second Life visit TJ's Dance Hall where Ainia DaFente will host the rebroadcast into SL. Or just use the links at the top of the radiofreedni.org page to listen, but you'll miss out on the text chat on the plaza if you do.

Please note that, due to Europe having made the change to DST, the time for this one show is an hour later than usual, 14 KI. The US changes back next week, so we will be in sync after that until the spring equinox, more or less. We will try to have someone on the plaza from 13KI and play some extended preshow music. It promises to be a long show, in fact, as there is a lot of material and I expect to carry on after Ed leaves us with some extra tracks and chat.

Update: I have some pre-preshow music ready and will start it at about 12:30 KI, and try to be on the plaza at that time too to explain what's going on. There will be music on Radio Free D'ni from about 12:30 KI until, oh, about 1630KI. as I have some postshow stuff as well, and will chat over it too. In part this is to make up for missing the last show.

One of the first themed playlists I made was on the subject of time. It wasn't very good. A few years later I tried it again with no better result. None of my themed playlists from that period is very good. I'm better now, but time still escapes me as a theme. Maybe it's too broad for me to find a thread that holds the theme together to my satisfaction.

Themed playlists are interesting experiments. For my own programs I seldom use a playlist, unless it's one of the "Special Projects" that grew out of those early theme experiments. The increased chance of dead air in an ad-hoc program is tolerable when with friends. When I'm doing a program for someone else I almost always make a playlist (I announced to a group in Second Life that I wasn't using a playlist, and there was a collective gasp) because it makes errors of distraction less likely.

Special Projects are just that. I get an idea, and start assembling songs that seem to fit. They usually take a year or more to develop, and I will play them as works-in-progress. That used to be it for themes, but last year I was asked to fill in for a DJ who was down with technical trouble. The event was the Mieville group's weekly theme dance. The theme relates mainly to the venue (a new one each week) and the costumes people wear. After a while this became permanent. Later on I started trying to fit the music to the theme. The challenge is less rigorous than that of a Special Project, but it's every week. No time for testing. There are trade-offs: good exercise, but some erosion on the special projects.

On Sunday there will be a show with the title Covered Up, which will focus on cover version and the relevant originals. In some cases the original has been overshadowed by the cover, in others the cover is by an unexpected artist, and in one or two cases, there isn't anything unusual, it's just a nice song

Come and join us on the plaza on Sunday 13th November at 13 KI (that's 1 pm US Mountain Time, or 8 pm UK time, 9 pm European time), or in Second Life visit TJ's Dance Hall where Ainia DaFente will host the rebroadcast into SL. Or just use the links at the top of the radiofreedni.org page to listen, but you'll miss out on the text chat on the plaza if you do.

We broadcast a show called Difficult Times on 27th November, and it looks like I managed to advertise it on Facebook but not here... Ooops.

In spite of that, we had a great show, with a wonderful attendance, one of our best. I was initially a bit concerned that a show set around odd time signatures would be a bit off-putting, but in fact everybody had a great time and there was dancing galore. Possibly helped by the somewhat random dancing of the Uru avatars.

Playlist and a link to the lyrics for 'Losing It' are here on the Radio Free D'ni website.

Our next show, in two weeks time, on 11th December, will be a Christmas show: a little early, but our next show slot after that would be 25th, and I think we will all be busy elsewhere around that time. The next slot after that is 8th January: at present we have no plans for a show then, as it is still too close to the holidays, but we'll let you know what we finally decide.

There may be a steamroller, from Mannheim, no less. A little Wassail, something from Canada, France and Yorkshire. Something Glorious from Vivaldi. And a blythesome turkey. How can you miss that?

Never a dull moment. All rights reserved, may contain nuts. Thinking about it, almost certain to contain nuts. But very entertaining ones...

Come and join us on the plaza on Sunday 11th December at 13 KI (that's 1 pm US Mountain Time, or 8 pm UK time, 9 pm European time), or in Second Life visit TJ's Dance Hall where Ainia DaFente will host the rebroadcast into SL. Or just use the links at the top of the radiofreedni.org page to listen, but you'll miss out on the text chat on the plaza if you do.

I can confirm the Mannheim steamroller, plus items with connections to Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, Canada, Denmark, the Ukraine, mediaeval Mysteries, Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, and Wolverhampton. Sometimes I surprise myself. Do come and join us for the last show of the year.

The first show of the new year will be a celebration of just a few of the musicians we have lost in the previous year. Sadly, there are more than enough to fill another show, and that's leaving out the ones we have already paid tribute to. The show will include

Bernie WorrellKeith GemmellLeon RussellGreg LakeRick Parfitt

Please come and join us on the plaza, in TJ's Dance Hall or just listen to the stream.

Sunday, January 8th, 13 KI (that's 1 pm US Mountain Time, or 8 pm UK time, 9 pm European timeJust use the links at the top of the radiofreedni.org page to listen, but you'll miss out on the text chat on the plaza if you do.

There were many listeners for all three shows, with something like 33 on for Show 60 and maybe a few more for the Saturday show - figures are not as accurate as usual as the show was being relayed, unexpectedly, so we don't have firm figures.

The next show will be on One-Hit-Wonders and will be on Sunday 19th February. Come along and join us, on the Ae'gura plaza or at TJ's Dance Hall in Second Life. 13 KI (that's 1 pm US Mountain Time, or 8 pm UK time, 9 pm European timeJust use the links at the top of the radiofreedni.org page to listen, but you'll miss out on the text chat on the plaza if you do.

The next show will be on the theme of One-Hit-Wonders and will be on Sunday 19th February. Come along and join us, on the Ae'gura plaza or at TJ's Dance Hall in Second Life. 13 KI (that's 1 pm US Mountain Time, or 8 pm UK time, 9 pm European timeJust use the links at the top of the radiofreedni.org page to listen, but you'll miss out on the text chat on the plaza if you do.

One-Hit Wonders proved to be a big One Hit, with at least 28 listeners for nearly the whole show and 33 at one point. Also, for the first time I can recall, we had more listeners outside the cavern than were there with us on the plaza. Playlist is on the Radio Free D'ni site - please leave a comment too.

The next show will be this coming Sunday, 5th March, and will be called No Fillers - meaning albums that have no bad tracks or weak tracks, fillers in other words, on them. We will feature a couple of songs from each of our choices, and there are quite a few albums that fit, so if you like the idea, let us know and we can do some more.

We still have some Bad Year for Good Music shows to bring you too, we haven't forgotten

Sunday March 5th, 13:00 KI to 15:00 KI on the plaza, with pre-show and post-show music on the channel so you can tune in before we kick off. Come along and join us, on the Ae'gura plaza or at TJ's Dance Hall in Second Life. 13 KI (that's 1 pm US Mountain Time, or 8 pm UK time, 9 pm European timeJust use the links at the top of the radiofreedni.org page to listen, but you'll miss out on the text chat on the plaza if you do.